Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Graffiti Found Inside Tiny Chamber in Great Pyramid

Researchers on the Djedi robot expedition have now obtained video images from a tiny chamber hidden at the end of one of the shafts leading from the Queen’s chamber. This tunnel is particularly hard to explore because it is extremely narrow (20cm x 20cm), it is built at angle of 40 degrees and has no outside exit.
The team overcame these practical difficulties by using a robot explorer that could climb up inside the walls of the shaft whilst carrying a miniature ‘micro snake’ camera that can see around corners.
The bendy camera (8 mm diameter) was small enough to fit through a small hole in a stone ‘door’ at the end of the shaft, giving researchers a clear view into the chamber beyond.
The ‘micro snake’ camera’ allowed all walls of the camber to be carefully examined, revealing sights not seen by human eyes since the construction of the pyramid
[…]
When pieced together, the images gathered by Djedi revealed hieroglyphs written in red paint that team members suggest were made by workmen. Prior to this, researchers had only found hieroglyphs in the roof of the King’s Chamber, which lies some distance above the Queen’s Chamber.
“We believe that if these hieroglyphs could be deciphered they could help Egyptologists work out why these mysterious shafts were built,” Dr Richardson said.

The full story includes photos.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt

Walk a Mile Underneath Jerusalem

Matti Friedman, writing for the AP, describes the various “underground tours” that are open to tourists in Jerusalem. He also touches on the political and religious complications.

Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.
At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.
Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.
Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem’s main tourist draws: The number of visitors, mostly Jews and Christians, has risen dramatically in recent years to more than a million visitors in 2010.
But many Palestinians, who reject Israel’s sovereignty in the city, see them as a threat to their own claims to Jerusalem. And some critics say they put an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.

The story continues here. The underground “route” that Friedman describes begins with a walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel (or its alternate, the Siloam Tunnel). Then, later this summer, one will be able to enter the Roman drainage system and walk all the way to the Western Wall plaza. In several years, a new route will take visitors on the first-century street beneath the prayer plaza. That will link up with the Western Wall tunnels which run north along Herod’s well-preserved retaining wall.

For more of the political angle on the “Underground Jerusalem” excavations, see last month’s article in Haaretz (noted here). For some additional photographs, see Leen Ritmeyer’s post.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Western Wall tunnel: northern section through Hasmonean aqueduct

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Tourism

Ennion Glass Exhibit at Israel Museum

Ennion created some of the most beautiful pieces of glass of all time. He was producing mold-blown glass in the years when Jesus lived in Galilee. If Ennion worked in Sidon, as many suppose, Jesus may have passed by his shop (Matt 11:21; 15:21; Mark 7:31). Such a large collection of Ennion’s works have never before been on display.

From Israel Museum’s facebook page:

Made by Ennion: Ancient Glass Treasures from the Shlomo Moussaieff Collection – on view through January 28, 2012.
The Israel Museum presents an exceptional group of ancient mold-blown glass vessels, many of them made by Ennion, a master glassworker who was the first to put his name on his art. Ancient glass bearing the name of the artist is exceedingly rare, and never before have so many examples been gathered in a single display. The exhibition brings together forty-three pieces, nine of them signed, including a number of pieces that rank among the highest achievements in glassworking of all time. Approximately half of the works are on loan from the rich collection of Shlomo Moussaieff and are exhibited to the public for the first time.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has a brief biography of Ennion.

Ennion worked as a glassmaker about 1 to 50 A.D. His signature is known from over thirty surviving pieces, and many other works are attributed to him on the basis of style. Ennion created the ground-breaking technique of blowing glass vessels into molds. This new process allowed the vessel and its decoration to be created at the same time and permitted the creation of multiple copies of the same vessel. Ennion’s clear, precise designs distinguish his work; he also minimized the visibility of the lines caused by the seams in the mold.
The location of Ennion’s workshop is debated, in part because his work is found throughout the Roman Empire. Some scholars believe he worked in Sidon in modern Lebanon, while others assert that he worked in northern Italy. The inscriptions he frequently used as decoration may provide a clue. Though his name may have been Semitic in origin, he signed it in Greek, the language of the eastern Mediterranean, not Italy. The city of Sidon, where he may have worked, had all the raw material for glass-making and extensive trade connections.

Tagged Museums

Weekend Roundup

Aren Maeir has posted the schedule of the 31st Annual Conference of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University.

Gary Byers has a report on discoveries from the first week of excavating Khirbet el-Maqatir.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg has posted his review of “Archaeology in Israel Update—April 2011.”

He reviews the demonstrations over graves in Jaffa, Jordan’s demand for the return of fake metal codices, Jacobivici’s “Nails of the Cross,” and the politicization of the Kenyon Institute (formerly the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem).

The ASOR blog has several dozen links to news from the world of archaeology.

Israel is moving forward with plans to construct the largest desalination plant in the world. When constructed, 65% of Israel’s water consumption will come from desalinated sources.

Kevin DeYoung’s post on “being better Bereans” is broader than the usual focus of this blog, but I suspect that many readers attracted to a blog like this one may be tempted to make some of the mistakes he describes. I recommend it highly.

If you’ve been waiting to pick up the new book by Ronny Reich, Excavating the City of David: Where Jerusalem’s History Began, do so this weekend, while the price is knocked down from $50 to $30 at the Biblical Archaeology Society website. They also have a good deal on Hershel Shanks, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. And the third edition of Ancient Israel. The sale ends at 11:59 pm on Monday.

Tagged Discoveries, Lectures, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Government to Invest $83 Million in Jerusalem

From the Prime Minister’s Office:

The Cabinet will, on Sunday, 29.5.11 [May 29, 2011], at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem, hold a festive meeting to mark Jerusalem Day. At this meeting, the Cabinet is due to approve the multi-year Merom Plan, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is advancing in cooperation with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority. The goal of the plan is to economically strengthen the capital city via two main growth engines. The first is to invest NIS 145.5 million [$41.9 million] in strengthening Jerusalem as a tourist city. The second is to invest NIS 71.4 million [$20.5 million] in strengthening the city a center of research, development and bio-technology industry. A further NIS 70.5 million [$20.3 million] will be invested in additional complementary measures to develop the city economically. Thus, the budget for the 2011-2016 Merom Plan will stand at almost NIS 290 million [$83.6 million]. A designated budget will be approved each year by a steering committee in keeping with the pace of implementation, the budget law and the outline of the Plan. In addition to the Merom Plan’s budgetary framework, the Tourism Ministry will allocate NIS 75 million [$21.6 million] to encourage hotel construction in Jerusalem. The goal is to increase the supply of hotel rooms in the capital and enable it to attract millions of tourists per annum.

The full press release is here. I would note that building more hotel rooms may only decrease the quality of the experience of visiting Jerusalem.

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

An Ancient Lego from the Island of Cos

The official Lego website claims that their special building blocks were first created in the year 1932.

Evidence to the contrary comes from the island of Cos, where this object was uncovered in the temple of the Asclepium. One can only wonder if native son Hippocrates was the first inventor of these wonderful toys.

Tagged Greece